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Addison Jay sought his school-room at an early hour
on the morning after parting with his young cousin, and
awaited his arrival with contending feelings of fear and
hope. Long and often he looked down the road which led
to Mr. Werter's residence, and watched with painful anxiety
the successive appearance of his pupils in the distance,
thinking each new comer might be Sidney, and, when undeceived
by a nearer approach, again fastening his eyes and
hopes upon another more remote figure, only to be again
disappointed.

When the school hour came without bringing the object
of his wishes, he turned with a heavy heart to his duties,
foreboding the worst, yet not worse than the reality. For
a day or two he hoped against hope, that his cousin might
yet appear, and that only some temporary illness had
detained him at home; but, when forced to relinquish even
this belief, he boldly resolved to go to Mr. Werter's house,
and make inquiries after his missing scholar.

It required some courage for the boy-tutor to do this,
for from infancy he had looked upon Sidney's guardian as
a cross and severe man; and he smiled as he found himself
mentally picturing him again, accompanied by those fieree
canine attendants, which were the terror of his childhood.
He went, but it need not be said only to meet with the
coldest repulse from Ralph, whom only he saw, and whom
he met on his grounds before reaching the house. He

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scarcely listened to Addison's self-introduction and inquiry,
before he sneeringly replied—

“What do you teach in your school, young man, besides
deceit and disobedience to parents and guardians? I think
one day's lessons to Sidney will suffice in these branches,
for he is an apt scholar.”

Addison began an indignant reply, zealous to exculpate
both himself and his cousin from so unfounded a charge,
but he was cut short.

“You may go—I have other business to attend to, and
I do not wish to hear you.”

“But you do me great injustice, sir, and I wish to
explain.”

“I want no explanations—I advise you to go, sir. If
you cannot get scholars without going about enticing little
children—out of your district, too—then, perhaps, you had
better try some other business.”

“Mr. Werter!” exclaimed Addison, so swelling with
rage at this taunting and ridiculous accusation, that he
could find no words with which to reply, excepting one that
he would not use. He longed to call him by the comprehensive
name which so much falsehood deserved.

“You had better go,” repeated Ralph, with a cold sneer.
“Don't make it necessary for me to complain to your trustees,
and spoil your business, which seems to be none too
good.”

“I will go from the presence of such a paltry old
wretch,” said Addison, desperately, his fine eyes flashing
with the electrical light of wrath. “Any words that could
move a man, would be thrown away upon you. You may
do your worst.”

The young man turned away as he spoke, but Ralph,
pale with rage, stepped quickly after him, raising his cane
as he did so, and ordering him off.

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Perhaps he did not mean to strike, but wished to impose
the indignity of the threat upon young Jay, and at least
seem to drive him away. But he mistook the spirit of his
visitor, who no sooner perceived the assault than he turned
quickly around and stood still, with a face of ashy whiteness,
it is true, but with features full of a warning expression.

Ralph read them not, for his upraised cane came down,
grazing the shoulder of the youth, while, so quick it
seemed almost simultaneous with the blow, the stick was
sent whirling through the air, and the old man was rolling
down the side of a steep hillock, upon the edge of which
they had stopped, and was received in a shallow pool of
water at its base. Addison had not struck him—nothing
could have tempted him to such an act—he had only
wrenched from him his weapon, while his assailant's catastrophe
was owing entirely to a misstep backward on the
hillside, combined, doubtless, with his own great agitation.

With the promptings of a generous nature, young Jay
instantly hastened to the side of his vanquished adversary,
but all offers of assistance were angrily refused, with many
threats of revenge.

Having satisfied himself that Werter was not seriously
hurt, Addison left him and returned homeward, not a little
grieved at an adventure so untoward, and which might
be used by his malicious opponent so greatly to his
detriment.

Poor, and without influential friends, he had made a
violent enemy of a rich and unscrupulous man, and what
amount of evil, both to himself and all whom he most loved,
might he not expect to result from his imprudence. He
feared the worst—and it came.

In his school-room on the morrow, in the midst of his
wondering and alarmed pupils, he was arrested by officers

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of the law, and an hour later he was the tenant of a jail.
He knew the tidings would speedily reach his parents,
and, fearful of the distress it would occasion them, he hastened
to write them a letter, detailing all the events of the
few preceding days, and treating his imprisonment as
lightly as possible, although by no means sanguine of its
speedy termination.

Astonishment and terror filled the hearts of Mrs. Jay
and her daughter when they received this letter, with which
the sobbing Lizzie was at once despatched to her father, at
the counting-house, who read the tidings with scarcely less
agitation. Capt. Jay hastened to his son, and was relieved
from part of his anxiety when he had heard the
whole of Addison's simple, truthful story, and knew that
he had committed no crime; but he dreaded the worst,
from the vindictiveness of his enemy, whose discomfiture
had been so signal and so mortifying. Never before did
he feel the galling chains of poverty so painfully as now,
when he reflected that he could not be accepted as bail for
his son, nor was it any easy matter to procure the heavy
security necessary for that purpose from other quarters.
Werter had filled the neighborhood with reports of a
cowardly and aggravated assault made upon him in an unprovoked
manner, and the totally different aspect of the
case related by the partial father was viewed with natural
distrust. The required bail in the action commenced
against Addison was very large, and when a long, weary
week had passed, the unfortunate youth was still the disgraced
tenant of a jail. Almost the only business acquaintances
of Captain Jay were his present employers, who had
also been the owners of the vessels which he had commanded
for many years, but they were sordid men, devoid
of all liberal and generous feeling. There were, indeed,
others among the many who had long known the worth of

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the unfortunate family who would have come readily to
their relief in this hour of trial, if they had been applied to
for that purpose, or had even known the valuable service
they could render, but the unhappy father, depressed by the
repulses he had met, knew not where to turn for aid without
the prospect of the same mortifying refusals.

Months must elapse before the trial could take place,
and Addison was in great anxiety about his school, which
he had begun to consider as his only means of self-support,
and which, in his present dilemma, became more important
to him than ever. He imagined his enemy trying to supplant
him in that quarter also, and seeking to wrest from
him his humble occupation. Harassed and chafed by this
apprehension, and by his disgraceful confinement, his
misery daily increased, sleep forsook his pillow, and his
health became impaired.

Mrs. Jay received some visits of condolence from her
friends, and among others from the wife of a wealthy
neighbor, who advised patience and resignation, while the
distracted mother was thinking how her visiter's husband,
with one stroke of a pen, could set her child at liberty.
As this sympathizing friend went out of her humble home,
elated with her own condescension, and the charitable visit
she had made, a bustling little woman entered, in a state of
great excitement, and sitting down almost breathless, fairly
pulled Mrs. Jay into a seat beside her.

“Now, quick!” she said—“tell me all about it. I'll
never believe a word of it. Only to think of the horrid
stories they tell about poor Addison.”

“What have you heard, Miss Kepps?” asked Mrs. Jay.

“It's abominable! and it's in the newspapers, too.”

“What did you hear?”

“Why that Addison had tried to commit a highway robbery—
and had knocked down old Mr. Werter, and nearly

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killed him, and was just going to take his pocket-book
when some one came and he ran away.”

“Is it possible they tell such stories about my poor
son?” said Mrs. Jay, in great agony—and Miss Kepps at
once set about soothing her, by assuring her that nobody
believed a word of it, and that she herself was ready to
prove that it was all false, for she knew it was quite impossible,
and she only wished they would call on her to be
a witness.

“But I fear they would not let you be a witness, as you
were not there,” replied Mrs. Jay.

“No matter for that; I could swear to his good character,
could not I? and I would swear it so strong that they
could not help believe me. Haven't I known him since he
was a baby? The dear little fellow! How many a jacket
have I made him, and how beautiful he used to look in
them, to be sure.”

Miss Kepps' excitement continued unabated, and Mrs.
Jay proceeded to relate to the kind-hearted seamstress the
real state of the affair as her son had described it.

“I knew it was so,” exclaimed the listener. “He did
nothing wrong at all, not a single thing, and I'm so glad
the old cur tumbled down the hill. I hope he got a good
sousing. Was the water muddy?”

“Rather yellowish,” said Lizzy, smiling through her
tears—“so Addison said.”

“I'm glad of it! I hope he got it in his mouth. But
now what I want to know is, what Addison is in jail for,
before he is tried or convicted, which he never will be?”

“Oh, because that's the law,” replied Lizzy, sobbing,
“unless he can get bail that he won't run away, before his
trial comes on.”

“Bail! what is that?” asked Miss Kepps, with a very

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puzzled look, and wondering whether it could have anything
to do with the bail of a kettle.

“Why it means a surety. Some rich man who is worth
a whole thousand dollars has to sign a bond for his appearance
at court, so Addison says.”

“And do they have to pay the money?” asked Miss
Kepps, with great interest.

“Not if he keeps his word and appears, but if he runs
away the bondsman has to pay.”

“Well, why hasn't somebody signed something then, and
let him out?”

“Because—because they are afraid of losing their money,
I suppose. Papa has asked I don't know how many,
and they all make some excuse, even the rich Smiths.”

“Well, it's a burning shame and a sin, that it is. Can
a woman be bail?”

“Yes, if she has money.”

“Well then, I'll be a bail myself. I'll go right away
and do it.”

“But Miss Kepps,” exclaimed both mother and daughter,
“you have not a thousand dollars?”

“Hav'n't I, though? What do you suppose I have been
working for, twenty-five years, then? I'll go and draw
my money right out of the bank, and show it to the constables,
or whoever it is that has got him, and then I'll
sign any thing they choose, and Addison shall come out—
that he shall. I am not afraid of his running away.”

Mrs. Jay and her daughter were both in tears of joy and
gratitude, at this generous offer, which with some difference
of detail was really carried into effect, Miss Kepps being
accepted as bail, upon depositing her money with an officer
of the court.

That night Addison joined his family circle at home,
where the generous sempstress was present to participate
in the joy she had produced.

p657-055

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